One of the Boys: Part I

by Victoria Zeller
A lot has changed for Grace Woodhouse, a star kicker for her high school football team, since she came out as trans. Her senior year is a new start, and Grace forges a new path to unite her past and present.

Here are links to our lists for the book:

Part I, Part II, Part III.
15 words 29 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. scrimmage
    practice play between two teams
    “We play Buffalo tomorrow, so I’m doing some scouting today. Going to a few scrimmages, talking to recruits.”
  2. careen
    move at high speed and in an uncontrolled way
    The uprights shake and groan as the ball careens wide left.
  3. drudgery
    hard, monotonous, routine work
    After suffering through four periods of that (mixed with typical first-day-of-school drudgery), I was more than ready for lunch with the girls.
  4. coveted
    greatly desired
    When I spotted Tab waving me over to a relatively secluded corner table in East Cafeteria—a coveted spot, one we’d been hoping to snag—I breathed a sigh of relief.
  5. incredulously
    in a disbelieving manner
    “You don’t trust me?” Ahmed asked incredulously.
  6. copious
    large in number or quantity
    When he finally made contact with the ball, he punched it low and to the left, accompanied by copious mumbled swearing.
  7. autopilot
    a mental state in which you act without self-awareness
    On autopilot, I peeled myself out of bed, marched outside, and grabbed my equipment bag out of Lorraine’s trunk.
  8. euphoric
    characterized by a feeling of well-being or elation
    When I sent my first kick into the net, my heart ached in a euphoric, intoxicating way.
  9. intoxicating
    extremely exciting
    When I sent my first kick into the net, my heart ached in a euphoric, intoxicating way.
  10. inevitable
    incapable of being avoided or prevented
    My stomach tied itself in a knot, watching the boys like this. It was nice of them to go out of their way to include me, but they were delaying the inevitable.
  11. perfunctory
    as a formality only
    His in the hall were doomed to become perfunctory Boy Nods.
  12. optimistic
    hopeful that the best will happen in the future
    I shuffled home after school and crawled into bed, hoping I’d be able to get in a quick nap before Riley picked me up for the game. Of course, that’d been optimistic.
  13. emphatic
    forceful and definite in expression or action
    Riley screamed, passing out emphatic high fives to everyone in her zip code.
  14. cajole
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
    She’d spent most of the first half trying to cajole Jamie into helping her construct his birth chart; he’d declined.
  15. machination
    a crafty and involved plot to achieve your ends
    Riley glared at me, like she was trying to see through my skull and into whatever lovesick machinations were at work in there, but she ended up shaking her head again.
Created on Tue Mar 17 05:33:38 EDT 2026 (updated Thu Apr 23 19:25:23 EDT 2026)

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